One Big Airy Family. Thanks to All Who Made 2017 Our Biggest Year Yet!

MAD MAX get-ups. Tear-away pants. 8 month pregnant rocker-moms. Puppet Judges. Drinking syrup from a skate. Beat-box Battles. HELLbros! Nordic Thunder and the 2016 World Champion of Air Guitar Aristotle! These are just a few of the highlights that made up an epic night of joy-raising and celebration of World Peace in the name of Air Guitar and our charity Right to Play Canada

The following post shares the good times through the amazing photography of Henry Vanderspek who goes by the handle Culture Snap Photography. We also have a few choice videos from our resident videographer and editor Cat Mills.

After all the shredding and face-melting, Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc – the 2017 Toronto Champ and 2016 Ottawa Champ, emerged the clear favourite and was crowned the 2017 Air Guitar Canada Champion. She will go on to represent our country at the 22nd Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland. We will all be cheering for The Phoenix, our first female Champion, to become our first World Champion on August 25th.

We have so many to thank for bringing our season to its successful conclusion…

To our 2017 Local Organizers:

Mike Erman and his team in Saskatoon who have done 2 years of successful events now in the name of charity Creative Kids. Just under $2000 raised in the last two years

Tyler Gardner and his crew in Red Deer for his three years of organizing events all over Alberta, most recently and successfully in support of Suicide Prevention in honour of our lost brother Joel ‘Hand Solo’ Zak. $600 for the cause in 2017.

George Best of the Local in Medicine Hat, Alberta for two years of successful events and just over $1600 raised for Right To Play.

Sandy Gibson from Ottawa for three years of amazing events at the House of Targ where our most recent cleared close to $2000.

Amy Blackmore and her team in Montreal for three years of Air Guitar Quebec events during her busiest time of Montreal Fringe.

To Arron Butowski and David Goetz for our two newest regions in Kamloops, B.C. and Stony Plain, Alberta. thanks for having the courage to take it on and making great first efforts in running brand new qualifying events.

To Carlos Mengual for being an awesome partner in Air and helping to make the whole season along with Toronto and Hamilton events a breeze.

To our Sponsors:

BANGER BINGO – for being the magic sauce of support for so many Alberta and Saskatchewan events. Book your holiday Banger BingoParty today.

Collective Arts Brewing for a great first year as our provider of fine suds and ciders. To Jordan, Kyle, Andrew and Elliott – you elevated our game and introduced us to some amazing judges!

Panago Pizza – our longest and most far reaching supporter. Panago has been supplying delicious za to fuel our rocking and helping us make a strong donation to our charity since 2014.

FOURCE Canada for giving our competitors some inspiration in their rocking out with Festival passes to Way Home

To The MOD Club for hosting another spectacular National Championships with all the trappings of a full-fledged rock show!

THE RE-CAP

July 15th, 2017 – Toronto – The MOD Club. This is the 4th annual Air Guitar Canada National Championships. Previous winners have been Lee ‘Brym-Time’ Brymer (2014), Jay ‘THRUST’ McNeely (2015), and Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston (2016). After a strong female showing in 2016 with all but 2 regional finals having female champions, it was only a matter of time for the glass ceiling of Air Guitar to get smashed to smithereens and for a woman to take her place on the throne. And such was the case in 2017 – With Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc, convincingly taking the championship with near perfect 6’s in the final round.

But let’s start at the beginning…

The night opened up with a comedy set by Yuk Yuk’s Joey Harlem, dressed in the finest white suit he got the crowd warmed up and ready for the show opener.

Our theme this year was Make America Rock Again. We’ve done Canadiana, the British invasion, and it was time for us to celebrate the goodness that comes from our neighbours in the South – it is impossible to argue against the contribution of the United States to the library of guitar music that we all love and adore. To help make the celebration real… we brought in two legends of the Air Guitar world, past champions on the world stage – Justin’Nordic Thunder’ Howard and Matt ‘Aristotle’ Burns. Our Host, Nyree MacPherson, along with Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual and Glen Airy Glen Rocks dropped a series of American rock classics with some Air Guitar backing from the world champs to lighten the crowd and get the point across that we were gonna have lost of fun tonight. Andrew Johnston closed out the singing with Neil Young’s Coming to America, complete with glitter showers in Red, White and Blue. Aristotle and Nordic Thunder remained to end the number with Jimi Hendrix’s Star-Spangled Banner.

Nyree took over explaining the rules and the judging system. She introduced our panel of judges for the Dark Horse competition:

Up first was Ricky Incognito! He clapped and shimmied to the Gypsy Kings, but failed to get the scores needed to move into the Championship round. Cultural appropriation did not get the win… this time.

Next came the NINJ-AIR. Front somersaulting onto the stage he attempted to assassinate the judges with his moves but failed to strike a death blow and also narrowly missed the championship round.

Then came crowd favourite and Ottawa’s vice Champion from 2016, Zandy ‘The Space Mime Continuum’ Pothier. He re-capped his Ottawa performance but was just a scratch away from the top score to land him a spot in the Championships.

Up next was a first-time competitor who signed up that day after meeting Nordic Thunder at the bar the night before. Her name is Giselle and she rocked out proper to Tenacious D for her first go with the name Gisellebus Succubus. Strong first effort but she missed out narrowly for getting into the championships.

Up Next… a veteran of the Air Guitar scene back again to try and take the prize – James ‘Thrustin Beaver’ Dalzell, rocking out to Nickleback for another shot at the crown. He impressed the judges with his beer spitting and earned himself a spot!

Our last Dark Horse of the night was none-other than Leona ‘Ri-Ri Rockstar’ Placide. RiRi was a favourite in Toronto and she also competed in Hamilton, each time taking 5th place. She earned the highest scores of the Dark Horse round with her performance of Hot for Teacher. She moved on to the championship round.

In between getting the championship order set and giving our judges a chance to get a cold Collective Arts Brew, we had a special performance from some of Toronto’s finest beatboxers: Ryan Buckspawn, Cansun, J-NYCE, and Nassar. They blew the crowd away and Nassar came out the winner of the Battle, defeating Cansun in the final round.

The order for the Championship Round was established…

Nyree was back with a new awesome outfit and ready to introduce the Championships judging panel:

THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND:

It was time to get started – Up first was Charlene ‘Cha Cha Fierce’ Gibbons. She was a Brave Soul performer in Toronto and came in 4th place in that competition. She drew first performer and totally nailed it… you can’t help but wonder what her scores might have been later in the rotation. Huge energy and insane movement. She got: 5.9, 5.7, 5.5, 5.6, 5.8 for a score of 17.1 removing top and bottom scores.

Then came our 2016 Toronto Champion, Dana ‘Dana-Saurus Rex’ Schiemann who placed 3rd in Toronto in 2017. She is easily one of the most dynamic and aggressive performers. From shrinking violet to shrieking banshee, Dana destroyed the audience with her performance to The White Stripes Icky Thump. She scored: 5.9, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.7 for a total of 17.3.

After these two insane opening performances, anyone would have been terrified to go next. All except for The living legend himself… 74 year old Mr. Bob. Mr. Bob let us know why he was there… to ‘fucking rock and roll’ as he puts it. He played to the Hippy Shake by the Beatles. His scores were: 5.8, 5.5, 5.6, 5.4, 5.5 for a total of 16.6.

Next up was the 2017 Ottawa Champion – Erin ‘ The Mother of Air Guitar’ Wicker. Erin is 8 months pregnant. She created her own candles to sell to the crowd and raised over $300 for the charity. She rocked out to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. She is amazing and we can’t wait for her sleep deprived self to rock out with us again in 2018. She scored: 5.6, 5.3, 5.3, 5.7, 5.6 for total score of 16.4.

Following the old guy and the pregnant woman was Thrustin Beavers, straight from the Dark Horse Round. He rocked out Calm Like Bomb by Rage Against the Machine. He rocked nearly hard enough with scores: 5.5, 5.5, 5.9, 5.7, 5.6 for a total of 16.8.

After the Beaver came Ri Ri Rockstar, the other lucky Dark Horse of the night. She shredded out to the quintessential Van Halen track Eruption. Like a volcano, it was hot and explosive. She scored: 5.8, 5.4, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8 for total score of 17.3.

AirHead Air-ron, our champion from Kamloops was next. His experience as a burlesque performer paid off as he knew how to tease the crowd and inventively disrobe to reveal his message on his buttocks ‘make air not war’. Thankfully not a reference to flatulence, the judges loved his performance of Rush’s Spirit of the Radio. His Scores: 5.9, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.7 – for a total of 17.6.

Following that top scoring performance was Brennan ‘Major Party’ Risling, the Saskatchewan Champion, who simply lived his name and launched into a wicked performance of Andrew W K’s Party Hard. He scored the first 6.0 of the championship round: 5.6, 5.8, 6.0, 5.7, 5.7 for total of 17.2.

After Party there came our Hamilton representative Kevin ‘Pyramids on Mars’ Estrella. He dedicated his performance to Pantera’s Dinmebag Darrell with a killer edit. Sublimely technical, his scores were: 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.6 and 5.1 for a total of 17.1.

Next up was our Stony Plain, Alberta champion – Cat Friday. Always the artist he took Air Guitar to a new level, incorporating a roadie to help weave his tale of how Air Guitar can provide you with sustenance… The judges were equally impressed and mystified. His scores: 5.7, 5.5, 5.6, 5.5, 5.3 for total of 16.6

Once all the minds in the room had regained lucidity, it was the Quebec champion Adam ‘Fingers McG-String’ Reider to take to the stage. he rocked out the most insane Guitar Hero track – Dragon Force’s Through the Fire and the Flames. he killed. His scores: 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.6, 5.5 for a total of 17.1.

Red Deer Alberta representative and Vice-Champion, Dan ‘Shred McGnarly’ Clark was the next to take to the stage. His bulging muscles made for some great power moves. The judges awarded him: 5.6, 5.4, 5.5, 5.5, and 5.7 for a total of 16.6. Nice gloves too.

Following up, was two time regional champion Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc. Fresh from her video shoot with VICE news, Gen delivered the highest scoring performance of the night with Green Day’s Bang Bang. We all know how this turned out: 6.0, 6.0, 5.9, 5.8, 5.9. For a total score of 17.8.

Following that slaying, and back to the Mod Club stage was the 2-time Medicine Hat Champion – Darin ‘Ebony Love’ McKay. He lit up the floor and walked away with great scores from the judges: 5.7, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9 for a total of 17.3.

Then there was only one left. The 2016 Canadian Champ – Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston. Blake has been to the world stage and with tonight’s performance he sought to hold on to the champions title. He had all the pieces in place, amazing Canadiana, make up, a killer track. He rocked hard and received solid scores: 5.8, 5.7, 5.7, 5.7, 5.7 for a total of 17.1.

Before the scores were tallied – we invited our World Champs of Air Guitar on stage to give a special performance each celebrating their individual styles. Matt ‘Aristotle’ Burns went first.

Then Justin ‘Nordic Thunder’ Howard – each showed the crowd what it means to be a champion of this thing we call Air Guitar.

Finally it was time to announce the finalists and the song that the audience chose for the final round. We revealed the trophy, built by Cat Friday – welded from steel and painted red for the 150th birthday of our nation.

Gathered on stage were ten finalists – there was a 4 person tie for 7th place. In order:

Yes… he did. He drank syrup from a skate. How fucking Canadian is that! The Canadian Tuxedo rocked hard. But it wasn’t enough to close the gap. We thank Blake for his amazing contributions as the champ and we can’t wait for his next creation in Air Guitar. His Scores: 5.8, 5.7, 5.6, 5.5. 5.7 for a combined total of 34.1.

Cha Cha Fierce gave the best performance of the second round leap-frogging from 7th to 3rd place with scores: 5.9, 5.5, 5.8, 5.8, 5.8 for a combined score of 34.5.

Hamilton’s Pyramids on Mars was back with scores: 5.6, 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.7 for a combined 34.2.

Saskatoon’s Major Party thrashed for scores: 5.5, 5.7 5.7 5.9 5.7 for a combined 34.3.

Ri Ri Rockstar took to the stage for the THIRD time and pulled out: 5.8, 5.5, 5.6, 5.5, 5.8 for a combined score of 34.2

Then came Dana-Saurus Rex who hair-whipped up scores: 5.8, 5.7, 5.7, 5.7, 5.8 for a combined: 34.5

Ebony Love, always a crowd favourite, shredded on his knees for scores: 5.6, 5.8, 5.7, 5.7, 5.7 for a combined score of 34.4

Kamloops champ AirHead Air-Ron was back after a strong first round with more undressing for scores: 5.9, 5.7, 5.6, 5.8, 5.8 for a combined: 34.9

Lastly was THE PHOENIX. Her dominant first round performance would be hard to overcome, and at this point the judges had made up their minds. She followed with another winning performance and received top scores: 6.0, 6.0, 6.0, 5.8, 6.0. for a combined: 35.8

The Final Standings:

The Phoenix 35.8 (1st)

AirHead Arron 34.9 (2nd)

Cha Cha Fierce 34.5 (tied 3rd)

Dana-Saurus Rex 34.4 (tied 3rd)

Ebony Love 34.4 (5th)

Major Party 34.3 (6th)

Ri Ri Rockstar 34.2 (Tied for 7th)

Pyramids On Mars 34.2 (Tied for 7th)

The Canadian Tuxedo 34.1 (9th)

Fingers McG-String 34.0 (10th)

After the prizes were awarded and the thank you were done… it was time for the group jam to Free Bird in honour of our American theme as well at Keep on Rocking In the Free World as per World Air guitar tradition. The saying goes… When you are holding an Air Guitar, you can’t be holding a gun. World Peace one rock song at a time.

To close the night – we had our favourite band from Ottawa play – THE HELLbros! We rocked out with them until 2am and celebrated a great night of doing good while rocking out.

Hope you can join us next time. Thanks for a great season! Good luck in Finland Phoenix!

Air Guitar Alberta makes its debut June 1st at Bo’s Bar & Grill in Red Deer.

Red Deer is the first event of the Alberta Air Guitar season followed by Medicine Hat and Stony Plain. Last year, Red Deer crowned their first official champ – Kaje ‘Sista Fista’ Annihilatrix. She will be back to defend her title and take on all those who come to challenge. It is bound to be another amazing night of wild performances and costumes.

However, this year will be different for one very notable reason, we are short one of our own. You will surely recall the outlandishly over the top Joel “Hand Solo” Zak. Last year, just before Christmas, we learned that he had taken his own life, leaving us all incredibly heart broken. Joel had been part of the Alberta Air Guitar scene since its inception, and as a tribute to him and his friendship, this year’s Red Deer Air Guitar Championship will be held in his honour. Joel was our 3rd place hero. We call him that because he placed 3rd in Alberta both years he competed and then again at Nationals when he entered the Dark Horse competition. On June 1st, the proceeds of the event will be donated to Suicide Information and Education. Please help us celebrate Joel and make a meaningful donation to this important service that helps those who suffer from mental health crisis.

Joel first entered Air Guitar as a favour to Alberta organizer Tyler ‘Cat Friday’ Gardner, to help him out when he was just getting his first event off the ground. Always the giving friend, Joel never even hesitated. Like most ‘real’ guitar players, Joel thought Air Guitar was kind of ridiculous, but he knew how much Tyler loved it and being the best kind of friend, he was instantly on board.

Air Guitar Red Deer is stoked to have BANGER BINGO, the most heavily sought after glam metal bingo troupe this side of the world opening the night. And closing the night is none-other then local rock super stars: TIGERMILK.

Judging The night will be Returning Veteran Air Guitar and local Radio DJ Judge Peter Michaels. This will be the 3rd time Peter has Judged the Competition.

Next to him will be Dale Zak. Dale is Hand Solo’s father and an incredibly talented musician himself

The busiest person of the night might be Dylan Cave. Along with being a judge he is also manning the sound booth, and plays Drums Tiger Milk who will be closing the night! Dylan is also owner and Pittmaster at the Red Boar Smokery.

Finally, we have Chris Pearce. Chris is a traveling craft vendor known as Ragnar the Trader that creates and sells various Viking items, his specialty is the drinking horn.

The 5th and final judges seat will be live auctioned off on the spot. The winner will sit on the panel and help decide who moves on to Nationals.

Don’t hesitate – 1-min of Air Guitar might win you a trip to Toronto to compete at the Air Guitar Canada National Championships on July 15th for your chance to become the Canadian Champion and travel to Oulu, Finland for the Air Guitar World Championships.

REGISTER TO COMPETE or show up the night of and try your hand at the Brave Souls Round. All competitors are provided 1-2 complimentary Collective Arts Beers.

BUY YOUR TICKETS in advance and make your contribution to the charity. Do it for Joel.

As we near the fourth annual Air Guitar Toronto Championships at the Drake Underground on May 13th, it’s important to know what goodies are up for grabs when you rock the party right. Thanks to Fource Canada, Collective Arts Brewery, Panago Pizza, , we’ve got a bevy of treasures for our Air Guitarists to walk away with for the mere act of 1-minute of gyration and galavanting. It’s a small way of saying thanks for taking part and helping us raise the coin for our charity Right To Play Canada.

1ST PLACE:

2ND PLACE:

$100 Restaurant Gift Certificate courtesy of Eatertainment to the One Eighty Restaurant – overlooks the city of Toronto from the top floor of the Manulife Centre building in the Bloor Street fashion district. The brunch there is sublime and the altitude matches the ‘Airness’ required to earn this prize.

4TH PLACE:

$50 Gift Certificate to Hogtown Pub and Oysters on College Street. They’ve got killer nachos, 1/2 price oysters for your libido on Mondays, and one hell of a pulled pork sandwich. If you are lucky, you’ll get Christine as your server. She organizes Sunday trivia nights with kitchy and cool prizes to be won. Comfort food mecca.

LAST PLACE:

Sinclair Music wants you to move up the ranks of Air Guitarists and is offering a free Guitar Lesson to the last place finisher. Just imagine how that one guitar lesson might propel you to air guitar greatness. Thanks Frank!

AUDIENCE PRIZE:

As with all years, the audience gets to choose which song the Air Guitarist have to perform to in the 2nd round. Audience are given the opportunity to ‘Boost The Ballot’ for their choice by making an extra donation to the charity. For every ballot boosted is a chance to draw the Audience Appreciation prize: Your choice of a pari of Weekend Passes courtesy of Fource Canada to either of the remaining WayHome Music Festival, The Big Feastival or Boots and Hearts festival. So be sure to vote with a donation to Right To Play for the song you want to hear like 5-7 times that night as each competitor will perform to it in the second round.

MAN, OH MAN… THE CAPITAL OF GOODIES!

As we near the third annual Air Guitar Ottawa Championships at the House of Targ on May 6th, we felt it important to let everyone know what riches were on the line and ready to be won. Thanks to Sandy ‘Freak-a-chu’ Gibson, we’ve got a bevy of treasures for our Air Guitarists to walk away with for the mere act of 1-minute of gyration and galavanting. It’s a small way of saying thanks for taking part and helping us raise the coin for our charity Right To Play Canada.

Here’s the run down:

You don’t win something like this until you win the whole she-bang in Toronto

5TH PLACE:

NEW this year – the DUETS PRIZE:

Due to the popular demand to have a wing man/woman for the ridiculousness of Air Guitar – we have added a new round of competition called the DUETS ROUND. Find your drunkest friend and take them on stage with you and perform from any one of our pre-selected tracks. You can win the highly coveted Twin Mugs prize from the Mud Oven. NOTE: this is not an official entry into the competition… it’s like a side bet.

AUDIENCE PRIZE:

As with all years, the audience gets to choose which song the Air Guitarist have to perform to in the 2nd round. Audience are give the opportunity to ‘Boost The Ballot’ for their choice by making an extra donation to the charity. For every ballot boosted is a chance to draw the Audience Appreciation prize: Guest Passes to Cineplex Landsdowne. So be sure to vote with a donation to Right To Play for the song you want to hear like 5-7 times that night as each competitor will perform to it in the second round.

ANNOUNCING OUR 2017 PANEL OF OTTAWA JUDGES!Join us in a warm welcome to our first Ottawa judge – one of TARG’s very own – Joady MacIntosh, AKA. Lexxi Splitlip from Ottawa Punk Rock and Rollers IN HEAT.

We are thrilled to have Joady sit at the table of our jury and put up some tallies for all the competitors who will be rocking like mad-people for 1-minute of Air Guitar on May 6th at the House of Targ.

It’s not too late to enter and be judged by our friendly panel of music experts.

Born the second of four sons to a lumberyard foreman and a surgical RN in Miramichi NB, Joady MacIntosh had no shortage of imagination nor outlets to express it. After some formative years in theatrical performance and dominating the mall lip sync circuit, he came to the Capital city to form Busboyeez in the fall of 1999.

Although he had seemingly always written and preformed song acoustically, he has now gravitated to the role of the frontman. So too is his current obsession with rock n rollers IN HEAT, who have delighted audiences of punks, rockers and metal maniacs alike, as he dons the trashy garb of one Lexxi Splitlip performing lead vocals – forever referring back to his original form of self-critique: lip syncing in the mirror.

Air Guitar Canada is a Not for Profit Organization rocking out for world peace and helping children facing adversity. We are the official Canadian licensee of the World Air Guitar Championships – our Canadian champion will win a trip to Finland, the home of Air Guitar, to face off against the world’s best.

We donate the proceeds of our events to Right To Play, a charity dedicated to using sport and play to educate and empower children and youth to overcome the effects of poverty, conflict, and disease in disadvantaged communities world-wide.

Great Air Gods! We’ve got 4 new cities in play for our 2017 season:

If you told us 4 years ago that we would be having 11 events in a season, we wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are… growing in leaps and bounds. New organizers are finding out about it and for the love of Air Guitar and our charitable mandate with Right To Play Canada – they are stepping up and bringing this zany event to the people in their cities.

Air Guitar competitions involve choosing 1-minute of music to shred to on your invisible axe. The judges look for technical skill, originality, stage charisma, artistic merit, ability to be taken over by the music and ‘Airness’. People sometimes put on crazy costumes, create routines, come up with stage personas and basically lose themselves in the music on stage to their favourite guitar song.

The local champions from each qualifier are invited to Toronto for the Nationals and a chance to win an all expense paid trip to Oulu, Finland for the Air Guitar World Championships. It’s the 22nd year of competitive Air Guitar in Finland. Thousands attend the festival to see what the world has to offer.

Be sure to support these events – share them, like them, attend them. Air Guitar for good.

“When you are holding an Air Guitar, you can’t be holding a gun”

Please find below the details for each of our new cities’ competitions:

RED DEER TO THE RESCUE – First-Ever Championships Delivers the Goods

Event Re-Cap By: Tyler Gardner

Photos & Video by: Stephanie Kartzmark

June 18th, 2016 – Have you ever been somewhere and you could sense that something amazing was about to happen? Maybe it was the energy, the vibe, the tension, but you just knew you were in the right place for that moment that would undoubtedly go down in history. That is how I felt as I strolled into Fratters Speakeasy that night in Red Deer, Alberta.

Fratters, already a place rich with its history of music and performance was filling up with a new injection of electricity, accumulating in the air. As is always the case with such phenomena, it would inevitably find a way to discharge and unleash its full power all at once, and it did… all over the stage. Fratters is easily one of the classiest joints in town and by far the classiest place an Air Guitar Competition has ever been hosted at, or at least it was before we rolled in. This is the kind of place where a weirdo can be weird and a person can be themselves without being afraid of what others think (perfect for air guitar right?), and for one high flying, sock rocking night it was home… because as we all know, home is where you hang your Air Guitar.

It turns out that Red Deer was not to be the exception to the unstoppable wave of female Air Guitarists that have been sweeping Canada – proving without any doubt that Air Guitar is not just for the boys. Kaje Annihilatrix AKA: Sista’ Fista’ shredded through the night like a twista and made history as Red Deer’s first-ever ‘official’ Air Guitar Champion. When she hit the stage you immediately knew things were going to get crazy. While there were challengers and the scores were tight, once the dust had settled she remained standing tall… the Red Deer Champion.

Drawing first assignment was LT. Windhammer. Combining the names of two veteran US Air Guitarists LT. Facemelter and Windhammer. LT Windhammer defined what it means to be a Brave Soul; Having never even heard of competitive Air Guitar before this night he pulled out a pretty decent “Kickstart My Heart”.

5.1 – 5.0 – 5.3 – 5.1 – 5.2

Next up Maritime Sweetness showed us how sweet he really is, easily winning the award for best head banging of the night. He was head banging to “Shallow Grave” by Annihilator so hard he almost ended up in the drum kit!

5.8 – 5.2 – 5.6 – 5.5 – 5.5

Our only returning competitor from last year Hand Solo hit the stage next dressed in an Adam West style Batman suit… which makes sense. Walking out onto some vacant tables the Dark Night melted faces with his over the top performance with “Enter the Hall” by Revocation. He also impressed judges with the first Power Slide of the night!

5.8 – 5.7 – 5.5 – 5.9 – 5.8

Goldwin Massacre was next living up to his name as he laid waste to the stage showing exactly how its done! At one point he rode his Air Guitar like a skate board in tribute to the fact that the venue used to be an indoor skate park! He shredded to DRI’s “I Don’t Need Society” harder then it’s ever been shredded.. which is saying something if you know DRI. Rock N Roll is alive and well…. Gene!

5.3 – 5.5 – 5.5 – 5.9 – 5.7

Keeping things old school was The Black Heart! Who, dressed in all black rocked out barefoot to Joan Jett’s classic anthem “I Love Rock N Roll” earning herself the night’s first 6.0

5.9 – 6.0 – 5.6 – 5.1 – 5.3

Then out of nowhere last minute entry Zorba hit the stage looking like a being from a far away Galaxy of Rock and Metal. What followed was an Air Guitar clinic as he bounded through a medley of tracks including Journey – “Separate Ways”,

Daft Punk’s “Robot Rock”.

5.8 – 6.0 – 5.9 – 5.8 – 5.9

Sista’ Fista’ was next to try her shot at the invisible axe. As a Brave Soul she was going into this having never heard the edit of the song she chose, just picked from a list and killed it!! Thats what Air Guitar is all about! She also had some of the best Rock faces of the night! Her effort earned her the highest individual score of the night with nearly a perfect score!

5.9 – 5.8 – 6.0 – 6.0 – 6.0

Closing out the night was Jordy Bryce who rocked out to arguably one of the best Air Guitar Songs out there, “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath. And Jordy did not disappoint!

5.0 – 5.4 – 5.5 – 5.8 – 5.5

During half time organizer, national medalist, all around good guy Tyler “Cat Friday” Gardner (also the writer of this recap) gave the competitors a taste of what Nationals will be like. An official welcoming to the Air Guitar Canada family; theres nothing like a little family rivalry.

In the Compulsory round competitors had to Air Guitar to a mystery song unbeknownst to them. The audience voted through secret ballots and overwhelmingly chose a Heavy Metal Cover of “Gangnam Style”. After hearing the song once the top five from the first round, one by one performed the song. They went in reverse order based off of their previous scores.

Goldwin Massacre

5.6 – 5.6 – 5.5 – 5.8 – 5.6

The Black Heart

5.3 – 5.8 – 5.8 – 5.7 – 5.4

Hand Solo

5.5 – 5.8 – 5.8 – 5.7 – 5.3

Zorba

5.8 – 5.8 – 5.7 – 5.8 – 6.0

Sista’ Fista’

5.8 – 6.0 – 5.9 – 5.8 – 5.8

In the end after a hard fought night of battling Air Guitars only one can stand champion, that champion is Kaje Annihilatrix, or as she will be known hence fourth… Sista’ Fista’.

After wrapping things up with the traditional mass playing of “Keep on Rocking in the Free World” by Neil Young, Diesel May closed out the night. I couldn’t possibly think of a better way to conclude a night of Rock then with more Rock. No one does it better, or Rocks harder than Diesel May.

Congratulations to all of the competitors for making history at the first ever Red Deer Air Guitar Championships. Huge thank you to Fratters Speakeasy for being the coolest bar with the best staff in town. A thanks as well to our sponsors at Steam Whistle, 106.7 The Drive, Pango pizza, and Banger Bingo!!

DANA-SAURUS REX WINS TORONTO CHAMPIONSHIP – WEDDINGS SUCK.

Yes… we’ve been really busy. We had the Toronto Championships on May 28th. Montreal was on June 3rd. Ottawa on June 4th. And now…here we are on June 7th… just three sleeps from the first-ever Air Guitar Medicine Hat on June 11th. It’s Bananas! By the way… so far each and every Canadian regional championship has been won by women. Rock and Roll is for the dames!

Dana ‘Dana-Saurus Rex’ Schiemann entered as a Brave Soul and came out on top of the competition in Toronto. Her freaking crazy hair and larger than life stage presence floated her into the top spot (see video). Sadly for us… she’s got a wedding to attend on July 16th. Hooray for us… the top spot for Toronto at Nationals will go to vice-champion Blake ‘Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston, a newcomer who regurgitated a killer interpretation of Pantera’s Cowboy’s from Hell (see video):

The night started off with a special guest performance by Dance Animal. They are a comedic dance troupe that will be performing at Fringe late this month. Check them out – top Fringe act – without a doubt.

After Dance Animal warmed up the crowd… our super host Matty Burns led an air band number of The Black Crowes – Hard To Handle. Real singing by Matty and fake instruments by Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual – the 2015 Toronto Air Guitar Champ, The Storm Troop-Air, and Paul ‘The PK’ Kingston.

We met our judges: From left to right – Kat Curtis from Naked News, Luke Cameron from the Edge 102.1, Suresh John from CBC’s Mr. D, Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual, and Robin Henderson from Dance Animal and Toronto’s Lip Schtick Lip-Synch battles.

COMPETITION TIME

It was time for the competition to begin. First up was an unknown called White Face. Needless to say the judges missed the facial expressions and while the choice of Clutch and Shogun Named Marcus harkened us back 20 years, nostalgia was not nearly enough. He received 5.3, 5.4, 5.6, 5.0, 5.2.

2nd to grace the stage was Carlos Los Badass. A newcomer to the Toronto Air Guitar scene, Carlos totally killed it. He brought the latin lov-air to life with the Gypsy Kings ‘Bambaleo’. Carlos has qualified for Nationals. Scores: 5.5, 5.6, 5.6, 5.8, 5.8.

Next up was another newcomer Tyler ‘Secks A. Peel’ Forbes. Driving hard and leaping high to The Darkness’ ‘I Believe In a Thing Called Love’. Tyler didn’t move forward to the next round… but by our eyes he was most definitely deserving. Secks A. Peel is committed to redemption and has signed up as a Dark Horse for Nationals on July 16th. Scores: 5.5, 5.3, 5.2, 5.9, 5.7.

And another newcomer Laurence ‘Maxim’ Tetrault bent it like Victoria Beckham and gave a solid performance of Joan Jett’s ‘I Love Rock and Roll’. By no means the least of the performers her scores were near the lower end of the spectrum earning her the 2 Free Music Lessons from Sinclair Music. Funny enough…she’s chosen to use them for the piano. We hope she’ll come back in July and rock some more for the good cause… that and she’s totally rad. Scores: 5.3, 5.3, 5.4, 5.0, 5.2.

Then we had Whiskey Buttocks. Ooops. We mean Whiskey Pockets. Yep… Mark Slater was back for his second year in Air Guitar. Not only did he take it up to a whole new level qualifying for the compulsory round, but he’s been a gent sharing his graphic design skills to get the good word out to the masses by crafting each of our posters and on-line pieces that you may have seen. We are thrilled he’ll be moving forward to Nationals in the championship round. 5.6, 5.6, 5.8, 5.6, 5.7.

AH… Mr. Bob… our 72 year old competitor who inspires each and everyone of us. Despite his energetic performance, he was just one spot away from qualifying for the Nationals. Bob has entered as a Dark Horse for July 16th in hopes of making his dreams of becoming Canada’s Air Guitar Champion in 2016. Scores: 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.5, 5.8.

Riley ‘Savage Buster’ Boyd channeled his best Dan Akroyd and left a trail of Ectoplasm for the audience to slip around in. Scores: 5.1, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.6

KIt ‘Kid Vicious’ Kolbegger in their third year in Air Guitar was transformed and demonstrated peak ‘airiness’. Kid will move on to the Nationals. Scores: 5.4, 5.7, 5.5, 5.8, 5.8.

Matthew ‘Champ Forrester’ Hallsworth used his mental telekinetic powers to play the Air Guitar. This my friends, was a first. It was both innovative and bold. That’s what they say about the Champ. Scores: 5.5, 5.6, 5.4, 5.6, 5.7

The Brave Souls came next. First up was Sandy ‘Freakachu’ Gibson. A veteran of the scene, this pokemon power ball just wanted to play… so he signed up. And did better than he’s ever done in his previous competitions. He finished third… but will be volunteering at Camp Ooch during the Nationals – so we’ll miss seeing him electrify the stage in July. But he’ll be back. Pokeball and all. Scores: 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 ,5.7 ,5.7.

Then there was this guy. Out of nowhere… Pierce Manly. Not only did this guy kill it with his frenetic rocking’, but we even fucked up and played the wrong song and he still went with it like it was the plan all along. I actually wonder what it would have been like if we’d played the song he did know… because he was that good. Minus a trip off the stage because of the dark shades he was wearing – he was freaking amazing. Scores: 5.3, 5.3, 5.2, 5.5, 5.6.

Our videographer got so carrie away watching it all through the lens that he decided he should get up and try it on for size. He turned out to be really good at it and has qualified for Nationals. He called himself Adam ‘Holy Rod’ Holroyd. Scores: 5.6, 5.7, 5.7, 5.4, 5.8.

Then came Dana ‘Dana-Saurus Rex’ Schiemann. She was that and all the more. Her hair and her moves mesmerized every living thing in the room. We all air-gasmed with her to ACDC Shook Me All Night Long…Scores: 5.6, 5.8, 5.8. 5.7. 6.0.

Our final performer had a special night, or what sounded like a special week celebrating his bachelor party. Eduardo Van Halen was well suited and kicked out the jams as any totally hammered stag party might call for. Scores: 5.4, 5.5, 5.5, 5.6, 5.6

Our top seven went to the Compulsory round where they rocked out to Heart’s Crazy on You.

Whiskey Pockets – 7th place

Carlos Los Badass – 5th Place

Kid Vicious – 6th Place

Holy Rod – Tied for 3rd.

Freakachu – Tied for 3rd.

Keep on Rocking everyone… See you July 16th for Nationals at the Mod Club.

Air Guitar Toronto is coming to the Drake Underground on May 28th, 2016. This marks the next major event in the Air Guitar Canada season. Toronto will assemble the most super of heroes and their imaginary instruments to rock the crowd. And after the dust settles, we will send another set of finalists to the Canadian Championships in July.

While everyone is in this for the right reasons: Stardom, self-flagellation, and the conquering paralyzing fears and childhood traumas. These wannabe Air Guitarists will have the chance to increase the karmic good in the universe by letting loose for a minute on stage to a song they love, in the name of World Peace.

‘When you are holding an Air Guitar, you can’t be holding a gun’ goes the saying.

The first event of the 2016 Air Guitar Canada season set to wail on SAT. May 14th in Saskatchewan!

How much fun can you have pretending to be a rock star? You’ll have to make a stop at the Saskatoon Farmers Market Saturday night to see it all go down. The weird and wonderful starts at 6pm with Banger Bingo, followed closely around 7pm by the PERFORMANCE ROUND of the first ever official Saskatchewan Air Guitar Championships.

Yep. people of all shapes and sizes, walks of life, levels of sanity, will transform themselves before your very eyes with 1-min performances that will melt your face and leave you smiling from ear to ear. Heck, you might even get inspired yourself and decide to join in on the fun. For you, we have the BRAVE SOULS ROUND. It’s like Air Guitar Karaoke. Choose from a list of 30 or so, pre-cut tracks. Throw on some random costume or adornment provided by Better Off Duds, come up with a stage name and show the judges what you’ve got. The 2014 Canadian Air Guitar Champ – Lee ‘Brymtime’ Brymer was a Brave Soul. He went on to place 5th in the world!

Here are a few of the local treasures that will be taking the stage Saturday night:

BOOBOO KITTY

Meet Ying ‘BooBoo Kitty’ Tan, first time air guitar competitor. BooBoo Kitty is the co-owner of Saskatoons favourite raw chocolate shop, Those Girls at the Market, and is also a nerdy college student. She is a lover of Hello Kitty, and loves to pretend she is a kitten…. or sometimes a ninja… she is never seen without her number one fan, her sister Julianna Tan.

She is originally a drummer. “I find air guitar actually quite challenging, it’s a whole new game. I have trouble holding the air guitar while concentrating on moving the rest of my body. You need good proprioception (look it up) and be able to multitask.”

BooBoo Kitty loves classic rock, with Led Zeppelin being her all time favourite, but for this show… “I wanted to play a song that was fun, flirty, and that expresses my inner wild kitten.”

As she said during her Global TV news interview, “If my life were a novel, this would be a wonderful chapter to add to my life”

In a world where chickens are taken for granted, served with a smile, and sold piece by piece, one chicken is stepping up to the plate. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner had enough, he grabbed life by the wing and entered a championship competition to become the world’s best Air Guitarist. You will see him Saturday as he ‘flies’ the coupe, and he will Chester-fry your finger licking guitar riffing!

We can’t wait to see WWCD peck his Air Guitar to the metal tune of Old MacDonald. If that’s what he’s doing… which he is not. WWCD don’t cluck that way.